KENJIRO OKAZAKI – METTERE A NUDO / AEON MUTTERED

Posted on 2024-10-21

Kenjiro Okazaki’s artistic oeuvre often explores the fundamental principles of form and creation, transcending the boundaries of specific genres. He perceives diverse subjects—such as painting, sculpture, architecture, and literature—as interchangeable and translatable, while still preserving their unique characteristics.
This particular approach is evoked in the exhibition title, a perfect anagram conceived by the artist. “Mettere a nudo” meaning “to lay bare” or “to reveal the truth,” in Italian, reflects the human desire to break the seals covering the world and know its ultimate limits. The noun “Aeon”, etymologically meaning “life” or “vital force” in English, is often translated as “timeless” or “for eternity”. In correspondence to the first part, yet in contrast, the expression implies the emergence of endless murmuring or chatter, suggesting a continuous flow of words or thoughts that persists eternally.

Opposite – But in truth, the first creatures were driven from the sea. They fled. That’s why so many of us get seasick. A mudskipper crawled onto the beach, raising its head. “Look,” he said, beholding the vast expanse. “Thousands of miles of flat nothing.” Fis, 2024

Exhibition runs through to November 16th, 2024

galerie frank elbaz
66 rue de Turenne
75003 Paris

www.galeriefrankelbaz.com

  

ANDREW CRANSTON – THOUGHTS FROM UNDER THE FLOORBOARDS

Posted on 2024-10-21

Comprising a new body of his book cover paintings, this is Cranston’s
second show with Modern Art and first solo exhibition in Paris. This group of paintings continues the artist’s
ongoing and daily studio practice of painting on hardback book covers. Each cover acts as a portal or
window to multiple histories, here calling upon influences ranging from Edgar Allan Poe, Gustave
Caillebotte’s ‘floor scrapers’, and the artist’s own memories.

Opposite – I tell you I am dead, 2024

Exhibition runs through to November 16th, 2022

Modern Art
3 Place de l’Alma, 2nd floor
By appointment only
75008 Paris

modernart.net

  

JINGZE DU – TRUE COLORS

Posted on 2024-10-14

The first part features forty-three mostly small-scale paintings that depict animals precisely painted in black, white and shades of gray. These works are composed of thin layers of paint meticulously applied with an array of brushes. Viewers often assume that Du uses an airbrush and are always astonished to learn that he does not. Instead, he only uses age-old techniques that he learned as a child prodigy in Yantai, China. These sweet images of cats, dogs, pigs, goats,
rabbits, monkeys, ducks and other animals are installed throughout the main gallery, each one vying for our attention, love and possible adoption.
However, True Colors has a second room of paintings which completely changes the mood. They are loose adaptations of famous paintings from the past and include Manet’s The Execution of Emperor Maximilian; David’s The Death of Marat; Goya’s The Third of May 1808 and Vermeer’s Woman Holding A Balance. They are also painted in shades of gray, black and white, however in contrast to the animals, they are composed of loose gestural brush strokes which obscure most of the source image. With one exception, Du chose paintings that depict historical events notable for their violence, with one outlier: the Vermeer, wherein science and reason are highlighted. Through Du’s juxtaposition of animal and human, precise and loose and adorable and horrible, he suggests a world view that is more than black and white.

Opposite – Seal, 2024

Exhibition runs through to November 16th, 2024

Steve Turner
6830 Santa Monica Blvd.
CA 90038
Los Angeles

steveturner.la

  

GRACE SCHWINDT – WHEN A BODY BECOMES A LANDSCAPE

Posted on 2024-10-14

The exhibition features a dynamic interaction of newly conceived paintings and earlier sculptures in glass, ceramics, and bronze. Following the great success of Schwindt’s premiere in Zurich, the Paris exhibition represents a continuation and new perspectives on Schwindt’s engagement with trauma, injury, and the acceptance of

these through strategies of tenderness and touch. Inspired by literary critic Edward W. Said, Schwindt advocates for direct human encounters rather than intellectual understanding of cultures from a distance. She seeks to disrupt narratives on humans and bodies based on concepts of separation, instead promoting a history shaped by immediate touch. In doing so, she describes how, beyond our cultural influences, we are inextricably connected to nature, and this primal imprint is fragile and in need of protection. Even though the rational penetration of the mysterious and unstoppable metamorphoses of all life remains hidden from us, this very circumstance opens infinite possibilities for coexistence.

Opposite – Perfect Fragments, 2024

Exhibition runs through to December 21st, 2024

Galerie Peter Kilchmann
11 Rue des Arquebusiers
75003 Paris

www.peterkilchmann.com

  

Posted on 2024-10-14

The work in this show has an overt or discreet but always central relationship with technology. The Surveillance insect series is generated by inserting carefully constructed prompts into a commercially available AI image generator. A small handful out of the hundreds of rejected results is reworked in critical ways and printed on silver gelatin paper, a physically rich medium with strong associations of documentary veracity and cultural value. The subject matter gives a metaphorical body to the secretive data collection that underlies most public-facing image generators, which depend on images collated without the permission of their makers, and on users of the tools who are surveilled in their turn.

Opposite – Projection for damaged children, 2024

Exhibition runs through to November 16th, 2024

greengrassi
1a Kempsford Road
SE11 4NU
London

www.greengrassi.com

  

FRIEZE LONDON AND FRIEZE MASTERS 2024

Posted on 2024-10-09

From 9–13 October, Regent’s Park once again became the epicentre of the art world as Frieze London and Frieze Masters returned with a sharper, refreshed design and outlook. Together, the two fairs convened leading galleries from across continents, with over 165 exhibitors at Frieze London spotlighting cutting-edge contemporary voices, and more than 130 at Frieze Masters rethinking the dialogue between historic art and present-day collecting.

The atmosphere was one of both urgency and vitality – major sales were secured, spanning blue-chip contemporary pieces to Old Masters and rare editions, but the real conversation centred on how London continues to hold its ground as a cultural capital. Over 90,000 visitors moved through the fairs across five days, a crowd that felt notably younger, more international, and more engaged in the shifting politics of art and its market. Beyond the tent walls, the energy radiated into the city, reinforcing London’s reputation not only as a marketplace but as a site of creative exchange.

www.frieze.com